ASEAN Beat | Diplomacy | Southeast Asia

Philippines Issues Formal Protest to China Over ‘Dehumanizing’ State Media Video

The Department of Foreign Affairs demanded the “immediate takedown” of the AI-generated video, in which the Philippines was depicted as a monkey.

In this image released by the Philippine Coast Guard, a China Coast Guard vessel fires a water cannon at a boat from the Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources in the vicinity of Thitu Island in the South China Sea, Oct. 12, 2025.

The Philippines has issued a formal protest to the Chinese government over an AI-generated video created by a Chinese state media outlet that portrays the nation as a monkey, describing the depiction as “racist.”

The bizarre 58-second video, which was posted online by the state-controlled China Daily on July 10, shows a monkey in Filipino traditional dress being forced by the United States and Japan to parrot the arbitral award that was handed down by a tribunal in The Hague in 2016. The award ruled that China’s expansive maritime claims in the South China Sea were invalid under international maritime law.

When the monkey refuses to obey the U.S. and Japan, it is thrown into the ocean and then shot with a high-pressure water cannon by the China Coast Guard, before a whale surfaces and describes the arbitral award as “litter.”

In a characteristically forthright statement, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said the video offered a “revealing insight into what the Chinese communist apparatus thinks of the Filipino people.”

“This mockery of the lawful 2016 Arbitral Award and the video’s glorification of violence against the Filipino people and soldiers expose the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of China’s propaganda machine,” he said.

A screenshot of the AI-generated video produced by China Daily. (The Diplomat)

In a separate statement, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said that Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Leo Herrera-Lim met with Chinese Ambassador Jing Quan yesterday and conveyed the government’s “firm objection” to a series of “offensive” cartoons and videos published by China Daily about the arbitral award.

“The Department has since issued a formal diplomatic protest condemning the videos and cartoons, noting that China Daily went beyond legitimate political debate by resorting to demeaning, dehumanizing, and racist depictions of Filipinos,” it........

© The Diplomat